


Splash

by stydiapanic



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Day At The Beach, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, beach
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-08
Updated: 2017-02-08
Packaged: 2018-09-22 21:26:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9625970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stydiapanic/pseuds/stydiapanic
Summary: Based on season 8 episode 5 "The Good Earth," the reader tries to get Spencer to change how he feels about going to the beach, one of her favorite places.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't find a proper beach that was actually near quantico, virginia, so this fic takes place in some unspecified beach town, maybe as a vacation

Making Spencer love the beach was not going to be easy. 

"Oh, come on. Please? It's my favorite," you begged. 

"Y/N, you know I hate it," he complained in response. 

"Yeah, but, you love me, soooo..."

"So I should do things that I hate for you?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow. 

"Okay, no, that sounds bad. Not things, plural. Just this one thing!"

"Y/N," he laughed at your ridiculousness. 

"Sandy food, pink skin, limited and un-engaging topography," you rattled off, echoing his reasons for hating one of your favorite places. 

"You're forgetting the drug resistant bacteri-" 

"No, I'm not, I'm purposely ignoring it." 

"But it's the most important one." 

"There aren't even that many seagulls at this beach, okay, I'm ignoring it, it's gross." 

"Okay," he said, the corner of his mouth twitching up at your discomfort. "I'm still not going though." 

"Spence pleeeaaaaaaase," you tried your best to give him an innocent puppy dog look. 

"Oh," he feigned sympathy, putting a hand to his chest, "this truly is heartbreaking." 

"Dick," you mumbled, throwing yourself back against the pillows in yours and Spencer's bed in defeat. 

"Okay," he sighed, "I'll go, but on one condition." 

"What is it?" you asked hesitantly, not letting yourself get excited just yet. Well, okay, not  _too_ excited. 

"This is your thing. And then I get a thing. You have to go somewhere with me." 

"Okay! Yes!" Your expression changed as you realized what it would be. "It's gonna be the Korean film festival isn't it," you deadpanned. 

"Maybe." 

"Oh, but, Spencer-" 

"I told you, I can just translate in real time! It'll be fine." 

"Yeah, but then people will give us looks for talking during a movie and it'll be weird and captions always distract me from the on-screen stuff so your voice would probably do the same thing." 

"Ah, now you're just making stuff up. Come on. Beach time." 

Okay, he was kinda right. "Beach time!" you yelled triumphantly, hopping off the bed to dig around for your swimsuit. 

 

Half an hour later, you pulled into a parking spot. 

Reaching behind you into the backseat, you grabbed your bag and hopped out of the car, leaving your shoes inside. 

"So," you began, once you and Spencer had found a spot to put your towels down. The beach was relatively empty today. It was perfect. "Sandy food, we've already avoided by eating beforehand. That's one." You tugged on the loose knot of the wrap you were wearing, the only thing covering your bikini-clad body, the fabric falling to the ground. Holding up a bottle of sunscreen, you held it out to Spencer. "Pink skin. That's two. Care to help me out?" 

"I, uh, kind of no longer hate the beach," he said as you turned around, beginning to rub the sunscreen into the skin of your back and shoulders. 

"That was easy," you giggled. "Forget to factor this in?" you turned slightly to look at him. 

He pursed his lips, brow furrowing, "I guess I never thought about it." 

"You know, for a genius, that's not very smart." 

"Hey, to be fair, I hadn't met you when I made those statements." 

"True, but you didn't care to update them. And what is genius if you're not constantly seeking out new information, right?"

"Okay, Einstein," his hands moved down your back, shifting and wrapping his fingers around your hips while his thumbs stayed at the sides of your lower back so he could massage the sunscreen in. He retrieved more from the bottle and moved down to the exposed skin of your butt that wasn't covered by your bikini bottoms. 

"Yeah, you're right, I might've been kind of an idiot." 

You smiled, turning around. You could do the rest yourself. "Your turn." He swiftly pulled his shirt off over his head and tossed it next to your discarded clothing. "Mmhm. The beach is very good," you said, appraising his half-naked form. 

He smirked. 

You stood on your toes, pressing a quick kiss to his lips before you spun him around, starting with his shoulders and working your way down his small but lean torso. 

Once you both were entirely covered, you moved on. "Okay, three: limited and un-engaging topography. Spence, I don't even know where to start." You took a breath, thinking. "Okay, sit down, face the water." He did as you asked, sitting down in the center of the towel. You sat behind him with your knees bent, feet coming to rest in between his outstretched legs, and leaned your cheek against his shoulder. 

"Why did you bring two towels if you were just gonna sit on mine?" 

"Shush," you said, putting both palms against the sides of his face and turning it back toward the ocean. "Look." 

"Looking."

"It is scientific fact that the ocean calms people."

"Is that so?"

"Okay, well, they haven't really done a lot of studies on it, but like, I don't know. It's a thing. So anyway, what you might refer to as 'limited and un-engaging,' I would call more 'comforting and serene.' Yeah, it's repetitive, but that's the point. Repetitive motion has been shown to lower heart rate, blood pressure, and help with depression and anxiety." 

"I love when you get scientific." 

"I know," you smiled into his shoulder. "Now, close your eyes and just listen." 

The sound of the waves always calmed you. Sometimes you listened to audio recordings of it when you couldn't sleep or when you felt particularly anxious. It was something about how the water would always be doing this, cresting and crashing over and over again, that reminded you that your problems weren't really that important. The ocean would always be here with its rhythmic motion; nothing that humanity did could stop that. It reminded you that things existed before humans discovered them, and that they would continue to exist whether you did or not. The ocean was, overall, a comforting constant in a world where constants were severely lacking. 

You slid around so you were sitting in front of Spencer now, him opening his eyes at your movement. 

"You get it now?" you asked, looking into his eyes, hoping you wouldn't have to use words this time.

"Yeah. I get it now," he said, looking tenderly back at you with his soft brown eyes. He pulled you in, his hand cradling your jaw as your lips met. You wrapped your arms around his neck, kissing him back; slow and loving. 

"Okay," you piped up, pulling back from the kiss, "time to go in!"

He sighed, letting you haul him up by the hand and following you to the water. You walked right in, not caring about the temperature, until you were knee-deep. Spencer took one step in before stepping back. "It's cold."

"Ignore it?" you suggested hopefully.

"The things I do for you."

You splashed water at him teasingly. 

"Shouldn't have done that," he stated as he reached you, sending a wave of water at you, some of the droplets landing in your hair. 

"Ah! No!" you yelped, running farther into the waves, him following behind. He caught up and toppled you, both of you going under, popping back up completely drenched in the saltwater, giggling. 

You started to swim away from him, turning back around to see that a wave had crested right behind him. "Spence!" you yelled out a warning. Too late. The wave hit him mostly in the shoulders, pushing him forward as the spray of water went over his head, taking him by surprise. You laughed at his shocked expression, calling out, "Never turn your back on the ocean!" 

"Now you tell me!" he responded, following you to shallower waters. 

 

"So," you started a little while later, back on the towels, you sitting with Spencer's head in your lap, carding your fingers through his hair, "Did I manage to change your mind?"

"Well, you never did ease my discomfort about the seagull thing, but-" you sighed in mock annoyance, "Yeah, I'd say it was pretty alright." You could feel his smile against your skin. 

"Pretty alright," you echoed. "I can live with that." 

 


End file.
